The latest quarterly national statistics on NHS inpatient and outpatient waiting events produced by the Department of Health were released on 25th February 2011 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

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Details

NHS inpatient and outpatient waiting events figures for the quarter ending 31st December 2010 include data for England, Strategic Health Authorities, and NHS Trusts and PCTs.

The key points from the latest release are:

Inpatient Events

The number of decisions to admit has increased by 48,000 (3.7%) to 1.34 million since the equivalent quarter of 2009-10. Similarly, the number of admissions from the list has increased by 60,000 (5.3%) to 1.2 million compared to the equivalent quarter of 2009-10.

Outpatient Referrals and attendances

In Quarter 3 of 2010-11:

The number of GP referrals made has increased by 15,000 (0.6%) to 2.7 million compared to the equivalent quarter of 2009-10. The number of other referrals made has increased by 125,000 (8.2%) to 1.7 million compared to the equivalent quarter of 2009-10.

First attendances at consultant outpatient clinics have increased by 103,000 (2.6%) to 4.1 million and total attendances increased by 263,000 (2.1%) to 3.3 million compared to the equivalent quarter of 2009-10.

Did not attend (DNA) rates have increased this quarter compared to the equivalent quarter of 2009/10. This quarter, the percentage of patients who did not attend for their first outpatient attendance is 9.0% which shows a 0.2% increase compared to the equivalent quarter of 2009-10.

Note

Due to an improved data collection mechanism requiring providers to split their data by commissioner, the coverage of commissioner based data has improved. Therefore, the growth rates quoted are higher than those calculated using provider based data. These data are available using the link below.